Bahrain
Map

The Kingdom of Bahrain is an independent Arab nation in
western Asia, part of the region known as the Middle East. It is made up of 36
islands on the western side of the Persian Gulf, between
Saudi Arabia to the east and
Qatar to the west. The main island, also known as Bahrain, is home to the
country’s capital and largest city, Manama.

More than 60 percent of Bahrain’s population is native-born,
in contrast to the populations of other Persian Gulf states such as Kuwait,
Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, where foreign-born inhabitants outnumber
the native population. Bahrain also differs from its neighbors in that the
number of followers of Shia Islam in the country is more than double that of the
adherents of Sunni Islam, which is the largest group of Muslims worldwide. The
Sunnis control the country’s government, however.

In the 1930s Bahrain became the first Arab state in the
Persian Gulf region to develop an oil-based economy, but by the early 1980s its
oil fields were mostly depleted. However, the country had prepared for this
change by investing in other industries, and its economy continues to prosper.